Numbers of homeless students growing in Anderson and across South Carolina

Old files and a collection of shoes are some of the many items in the storage area at the district office in November. "Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.11431 et seq.), the definition of homeless is children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations; living in emergency or transitional shelters; abandoned in hospitals; awaiting foster care placement; migratory children; and unaccompanied youth," according to the Anderson Five student referral form brochure.(Photo: Ken Ruinard / staff)

Chasity Ellenburg had become accustomed to cramming all her belongings into tote bags and plastic bags every couple of months and finding a new couch to sleep on. When the Lander College freshman was in her senior year at Westside High School, she’d been going through this process for a year and was one of Anderson District 5’s more than 200 identified homeless students.

Throughout Anderson County’s five school districts, there are 806 students classified as homeless through their school district and are connected with each district’s homeless liaison.

During the 2016-2017 school year, the state of South Carolina had 11,767 identified homeless students. During 2017-2018, it had increased to 12,660.

Homelessness in school is defined as “children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence,” according to the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth program. That includes people who are sharing housing, sometimes referred to as “doubling up,” living in motels or hotels and those living in shelters, cars or other places that aren’t designed for people to sleep in.

Unlike standard definitions of homelessness, McKinney-Vento classifies students who are “doubling up” as homeless. Because of that, there’s no accurate way to compare the student population to the population of adults who are currently homeless, which according to the 2018 Point in Time count, is 116 in Anderson County.

District 5’s liaison, Lisa Butler, said she had 271 homeless students at of the beginning of November, but she knows that number could be higher. Butler recognizes that there may be some students who are homeless who just haven't come forward. She works to make sure every identified homeless student in the district has everything he or she needs to attend school. Each homeless student's identity is kept confidential, even from that student's teachers. It's only revealed on a need-to-know basis.

Despite the stigma that gets assigned to homelessness, Ellenburg thought it would be important to share her story and agreed to be identified.

"I don't have a problem with telling people," Ellenburg said. "I think it might help some people."

Ellenburg lived with different family members until she was in high school and then eventually she mostly stayed with friends.

Although Ellenburg spent her junior and senior years of high school moving from place to place, she said her grades were still “pretty good.” Part of that is because many of her teachers knew her challenges.

“All of my teachers pretty much knew my situation, so they were more lenient with homework and stuff like that,” Ellenburg said.

Ellenburg, 18, is studying psychology at Lander University. She said Butler helped her through the college application and enrollment process, lobbying the university to give her more financial aid and allow her to remain in her on-campus housing during breaks when the dorms are closed.

Ellenburg’s dorm room is her first stable home after two years of moving around every few months.

“I hated to move all the time,” Ellenburg said. “I was used to it, but I hated it. And now I feel a lot better since I don’t have to move so much.”

Lisa Butler, McKinney Homeless Liaison in Anderson School District Five, looks over items in the storage area at the district office in November. Butler, who has been helping homeless for 16 years with the school district, says there are about 222 homeless in the school district at the moment, and there has been as many as 360 a few years ago. "Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.11431 et seq.), the definition of homeless is children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations; living in emergency or transitional shelters; abandoned in hospitals; awaiting foster care placement; migratory children; and unaccompanied youth," according to the Anderson Five student referral form brochure. (Photo: Ken Ruinard / staff)

Homeless coordinators can only help so much

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act designates federal funds under Title I for homeless students specifically. But it is very specific about the funds being used only for things related to success at school, which limits the ways in which the districts can help.

“Whether it’s school supplies, clothing, toiletries, whatever they need for school, we provide,” Butler said. “We remove all the barriers. If they play sports, I pay for sports physicals. If they need eyeglasses, we do that.”

“There are things that if they can’t use them for school, I can’t purchase,” Butler said. “But they still need them. Like at Safe Harbor, kids [arrive] with the clothes on their back. They don’t wear pajamas at school, so I technically cannot buy them pajamas. … I can’t pay for hotels. Our money is strictly for education, so then I have to reach out for shelters, and if there’s no shelters, I have to reach out to someone else to maybe sponsor a family to put in a hotel.”

That’s when Butler begins to tap into her partnerships with organizations in the community. She has Anderson University students tutor and mentor her students, an arrangement she said generally helps students emotionally and academically. AIM will provide food, the Salvation Army will house families when they have openings, Safe Harbor will take families in in emergency situations. Various churches around the community run donation drives for food and clothes.

Lisa Butler, McKinney Homeless Liaison in Anderson School District Five, looks over items in the storage area at the district office in November. Butler, who has been helping homeless for 16 years with the school district, says there are about 222 homeless in the school district at the moment, and there has been as many as 360 a few years ago. "Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.11431 et seq.), the definition of homeless is children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations; living in emergency or transitional shelters; abandoned in hospitals; awaiting foster care placement; migratory children; and unaccompanied youth," according to the Anderson Five student referral form brochure. (Photo: Ken Ruinard / staff)

Homeless numbers growing

Amber Monterroyo, the liaison for District 1, has 339 identified homeless students, which she says is the highest she’s had in her four years in the role. She’s not sure why the number continues to increase, but thinks that the district’s new online registration system might play a role.

“I’m not sure if it’s due to more parents feeling comfortable answering the questions online versus having to send the form in, or if the need has just grown around here,” Monterroyo said.

Butler has been the District 5’s homeless liaison for 16 years, after getting involved with it as a passionate volunteer. Before that, she was a substitute teacher in the district while her two kids, now 31 and 28, attended Westside. With such a long tenure in the role, she’s seen changes in the makeup of the homeless student population.

“When I started 16 years ago, the most I had in a year was 60 homeless students,” she said. “The numbers continually increase every year.”

Butler attributes the increasing numbers to generational poverty, situations where both parents lose their job at once, illnesses that cost a family more than they can afford to pay or take a breadwinner out of commission, a lack of affordable housing and even a lack of affordable, accessible transportation for people to get to work.

“It can be anybody,” she said. “That was an eye-opener for me because before I started this, I didn’t think about that. Most of them live paycheck to paycheck. How many people do we know who are living paycheck to paycheck, and you miss one paycheck and you’re in that situation?”

Each liaison emphasized that every family’s situation is different and for them to be able to maximize the help they give, they need to be able to have an understanding of the situation as a whole.

“We don’t want it to be cookie cutter at all where a family comes in and we give them a bookbag,” David Nixon, District 3’s liaison said. “We try to cater to each family’s needs.”

District 4 liaison Royce Miller has noticed a trend of conflict being one of the leading causes of homelessness for his students.

“I’d probably have to say that’s the primary: conflict,” Miller said. “Whether it be marriage, significant other, parent and child. Things are usually stemming from some type of conflict.”

Lisa Butler, McKinney Homeless Liaison in Anderson School District Five, looks over items in the storage area at the district office in November. Butler, who has been helping homeless for 16 years with the school district, says there are about 222 homeless in the school district at the moment, and there has been as many as 360 a few years ago. "Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.11431 et seq.), the definition of homeless is children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations; living in emergency or transitional shelters; abandoned in hospitals; awaiting foster care placement; migratory children; and unaccompanied youth," according to the Anderson Five student referral form brochure.(Photo: Ken Ruinard / staff)

In District 4, Miller said 52 of the 69 identified students are in elementary school. However, in District 2, which Carlos Brooks said only has 10 students identified, five are in middle school and five are in high school.

Brooks said in his experience, it is generally the secondary students who are classified as homeless.

Butler has also learned that when tax season comes, her homeless student population will drop, and unfortunately that’s usually only temporary. She said when the families get their tax refunds, they may get an apartment immediately without the financial skills to handle it, so she encourages families in those positions to maybe go to a shelter first, then find transitional housing before getting permanent housing.

“Kids can be cruel at times, and it’s hard when a child’s homeless,” Butler said. “I want them to walk in that school and have everything they need so they can just smoothly transition, and nobody knows the difference. That’s important to me. I want them to feel like they fit in because they’re dealing with enough when they get home, wherever home is.